If Li kud only believe…

The Friday edition of the Jerusalem Post this week (April 6 2007) contained a large ad to urge Anglos to join the Likud.  The opening line of the ad had to take me aback: “are you tired of waking every morning to a new corruption scandal?” it asked.

Now let’s put aside for a moment the fallacy that Anglos should vote for a party based solely on their being English speakers.  Let’s just consider this portrayal of the Likud as some sort of alternative to what’s wrong in politics today.

There’s no question that the present government is one of the most roundly investigated ever.  Still, the idea of the Likud trumpting themselves as the antithesis of that is ironic at best, hypocritical at worst.  Have we so quickly forgotten the party who just a few years ago got 40 seats in the Knesset which were divided up on the basis of cronyism.  The party was totally controlled by a central committee run by Uzi Cohen the deputy mayor of Raanana who, regardless of whether the things he himself has been investigated for and despite the lovely job he’s done with Raanana’s flower beds, is hardly qualified to be deciding the fate of the nation by delegating Knesset seats in backroom deals.

Knesset seats went to a law student (Inbal Gavrieli) whose work experience resume consisted of waitressing and having a daddy who donated to the Likud; to a candidate (Ruhama Avraham) who tried to garner votes by opening a hot dog stand for the central committee delegates).  Later there was even a space freed up for a former beauty queen (Penina Rosenblum).  And of course Naomi Blumenthal was actually convicted on election corruption charges.

Even after the party list was determined the cronyism continued.  How else can one explain that a man who was voted into the knesset from number 32 in the list was immediately elevated by Sharon to a position where he was the natural replacement for Sharon as prime minister.  Then there was the use of Sharon’s son (26th on the list) as a personal delegate for sensitive situations rather than a higher listed member based on blood relation to the big boss.

Of course there were also criminal invetigations going on in the Likud during their recent tenure in power:  Naomi Blumenthal and Omri Sharon were both convicted on criminal charges, Likud leader Ariel Sharon was being investigated for improprieties and Yehiel Hazan for double voting in the knesset itself. 

And of course all the complaints about Kadima are all very well but let’s remember that Kadima was spawned by the Likud exploiting the voters by creating a party that goes against everything the Likud has ever stood for.  Meanwhile the present Likud list (which features a barely known former auto-parts salesman in 3rd place) was voted in by a Likud electorate that included a large percentage of Likudniks who said straight out that they were waiting to move till Kadima till after the Likud internal vote so they could sabotage Likud’s list by loading the top with subquality candidates (and which at least to some extent they seemed to have succeeded in doing).  The party list Likud wants you to vote into knesset is this same substandard list.

So please…if someone wants to urge Anglos to give the Likud a second chance maybe they should try telling us why it’s any different than it was in the past instead of pompously fingerpointing at other parties and making the Likud out to be some sort of clean-as-snow alternative.